Divine Love

Bhagavad-Gītā Summary, continued.

The concluding verses of the  Eighth Chapter of the Bhagavad-Gītā might be considered something like a Hindu “Book of the Dead.” Just as the Tibetan Book of the Dead describes the Bardos or intermediate states and transitional phases in the afterlife, in the 8th chapter Kṛṣṇa tells Arjuna about the various abodes to which one may pass on his journey towards the infinite.  

These different gradations are described in great detail as is the process for leaving one’s body. Such an understanding is confidential: in the 9th chapter Kṛṣṇa explains that this understanding is not for everyone. 

Then again, if you’ve read this far, you may be a candidate for a  more confidential understanding.

Kṛṣṇa says, “O best of the Bharatas, I shall know explain to you the different times at which, passing away from this world, one does or does not come back. Those who know the Supreme Brahman pass away from the world during the influence of the fiery god, in the light, at an auspicious moment, during the fortnight of the moon and the six months when the sun travels in the north. 

A yogi who passes away from this world during the smoke, the night, the moonless fortnight, or in the six months when the sun passes to the south, or who reaches the moon planet, again comes back. According to the Vedas, there are two ways of passing from this world—one in light and one in darkness. 

When one passes in light, he does not come back; but when one passes in darkenss, he returns. Knowing these two paths, O Arjuna, the true yogis are never bewildered. Be thou therefore fixed in yoga.” 

Exactly what sort of yoga Kṛṣṇa means is described in the 9th Chapter of the Bhagavad-Gītā.

Ninth Chapter of Bhagavad-Gītā

The 9th Chapter is called the “King of Knowledge,” and the “King of Secrets.” Bhaktivedanta Swami’s version is the “Most Confidential Knowledge.” In his Gītārthasaṁgraha, Yamuna summarizes as follows: “The 9th Chapter treats of the eminence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and his divine superiority in human embodiment as well as the excellent character of the great souls or mahatmas and bhakti-yoga, the highest form of yoga.” svamāhātmyam manuṣyatve paratvaṁ ca mahātmanām viśeṣo navame yogo bhaktirūpaḥ prakīrtitaḥ. स्वमाहात्म्यम् मनुष्यत्वे परत्वं च महात्मनाम् विशेषो नवमे योगो भक्तिरूपः प्रकीर्तितः

It bears mention that many commentators finish their commentaries of Bhagavad-Gītā with the 6th Chapter. In the first six chapters of the Gītā different ethical considerations have been rehearsed, and the paths of yoga have been introduced in some cases ambiguously. 

The many different alternatives in yoga have been gone over somewhat favorably in the first six chapters, where Kṛṣṇa appears to magnanimously accept that all of them have their place in spiritual advancement. Yogis who are especially appreciative of these other schools therefore abbreviate their study of the Bhagavad-Gītā and end where it suits them with Kṛṣṇa’s brief foray into the aṣṭaṇga yoga and meditation practices mentioned in the 6th chapter.

 Unfortunately for these commentators, the book doesn’t stop there.

According to Kṛṣṇa this information is confidential. He’s revealing intimate knowledge of the divine. How to achieve divine love is an intimate secret. It’s not for everyone. It’s an open secret in a way. It’s not really a secret at all. Everyone knows that if you diet and exercise you will stay healthy, maybe even lose weight. 

And yet, books and plans announcing so-called “Secret Diets” are best-sellers.  We know eating bad food and being lazy is unhealthy, still, we fail to act. The “Secret Diet” is no secret at all; really it is common knowledge. But when heart disease and diabetes give us a wake up call, suddenly we discover the “secret diet.” The “confidential knowledge” Kṛṣṇa is revealing has been published again and again. We know that the message of divine love is true; and yet we have other things to do.

King Yudhisthira was once asked by a mysterious forest-dwelling Yaskha, “What is the most wonderful thing?” He replied, “The most wonderful thing is that hundreds and thousands of embodied souls meet death at every moment, but yet while everyone knows that they are going to die, they make no plans for death.”  ahany ahani bhūtāni gacchantiha yamalayam śeṣaḥ sthāvaram icchanti kim āścaryam ataḥ param अहन्य् अहनि भूतानि गच्छन्तिह यमलयम् शेषः स्थावरम् इच्छन्ति किम् आश्चर्यम् अतः परम्

We know that death is imminent, and yet we act as if it’s a big surprise when someone dies. 

For the theist, God’s presence is self-evident, as is the experience of being a living soul. That the two might have a relationship is no secret. There’s nothing magical in thinking that a soul might have a loving relationship with God.

 Kṛṣṇa’s purpose in the 9th Chapter of the Bhagavad-Gītā is to explain the nature of the loving relationship between soul and God and how that unfolds through yoga. This yoga is called bhakti.

Commentators antagonistic to the bhakti  school cut off their commentaries at the 6th chapter, or explain the rest of the book in a pretentious manner with all kinds of word jugglery to arrive at twisted conclusions. 

But in the words of Yamuna, the 11th Century Bhagavad-Gita commentator, “In Chapters 7-12, bhakti-yoga, which is the culmination of karma and jñāna, or action-in-sacrifice and transcendental knowledge, is treated as the best means of attaining the Supreme and knowing him As He Is.”  (madhyame bhagavattattvayāthāmyāvāptisiddhaye jñānakarmābhinirvartyo bhaktiyogaḥ prakīrtitah मध्यमे भगवत् तत्त्व याथा म्यावाप्तिसिद्धये ज्ञान कर्माभिनिर्वर्त्यो भक्तियोगः प्रकीर्तितह्) 

An entire third of the Bhagavad-Gītā, omitted by the above-mentioned commentators, Chapters 7-12 , arrives at the conclusion that bhakti or dedication is the highest path, above both work-in-sacrifice or karma-yoga, and transcendental knowledge and meditation or jñāna-yoga.

Kṛṣṇa has resolved many of Arjuna’s doubts. Her he says that the most confidential and secret knowledge, that of worship through bhakti will now be explained both through theoretical understanding as well as in practical realization. (jñāna and vijñāna.) This knowledge, completed through actualization will lead to enlightment. One who realizes this knowledge will be freed from evil and be released from the miseries of material existence.